Medieval Guy wrote:It's interesting that there were no rumors of this.

judging by the lack of a real base and well thought out minifig use I would say this is something lego threw together at the last minute(which would explain the lack of rumors)to get rid of there left over kingdoms minifigs.

But I look at this set for what it is... This is just a fantastic army builder! I didn't really plan on making my Kingdoms factions any larger but I cannot resist this. The baseplate is worth $5 and with my Brickworld 30% discount next month this set is getting awefully close to $1 USD per minfig. That is simply

Username wrote:I'd rather have seen a Dragon queen or witch than a rehash of that tired torso. Not sure why the Lions are using jesters as knights!

Just swap the Jester into the Bishop slot. No big deal.

Like some others, I think this is just an over-run set, getting rid of already produced figures. Had to clear out stock since they now have LotR which could run for 2-3 years considering The Hobbit has been broken up into two movies. I've seen a lot of the other chess sets' minifigs are glued, and if these are, I might just not waste my time and money.

lord_of_orks wrote:great army builder! I will definitely be getting this

Medieval Guy wrote:It's interesting that there were no rumors of this.

judging by the lack of a real base and well thought out minifig use I would say this is something lego threw together at the last minute(which would explain the lack of rumors)to get rid of there left over kingdoms minifigs.

Given that the base is a special mold, that theory does not really hold water. If there was a better base, it needed only some time by a designer (and really, half an afternoon would have made something better) and parts-picker, now they went ahead and made something awful. Can't have been faster, but it was the easy way out.

I agree. This set is not just thrown together at the last minute to get rid of overruns of minifigs. That base as ugly as it is had to be prepared beforehand. This is a planned release and an amazingly well kept secret as well.

I wouldn't be surprised with little Kingdoms releases from time to time as placeholders for castle while LOTR runs its course...

In the past the rook built out of LEGO parts not the minifigures had some glue on them. That was some time ago with the Vikings chess set. More recent releases have not been glued. However, the minifigs not being glued may be due to Ben and his don't glue your minifigs rebellion! I didn't become a member until after you led that Rebellion Ben so thank you in retrospect!

This is a planned set not just a 'throw spare parts together to shovel them out the door' type set. It'd be far easier to churn out some Battlepacks or even put the Minifigure Parts in the BaM bins than to create a set around them. To me the wall-like base is no different than some of the other... packaging details LEGO has included over the years, there's a been a cave, a sarcophagus, a mask, a Zepplin/blimp to name a few. I'd expect the mold for the base is nowhere in the same league as the ones for the building pieces, and that's just fine. It doesn't HAVE to be, it's an accent piece basically. The real draw of this are the building pieces and THOSE look to be a great value.

I agree with Kosh and Dale, this isn´t just something they have thrown togehter. The lack of new kinds of minfigs is that TLG wouldn´t but down more time and work on making new designs for Kingdoms when its as much as discontinued.But its official now that this will not be a North American only set. Because when I emailed Lego customer service about this set, I got this answer:

I can see from our system that the LEGO® Kingdoms Chess Set (853373) will be availabe in Finland, but we do not have a lauch date for that one yet. So, in this case, I would recommend you to regularly check our website for that set as it will be announced on our website as soon as the set becomes available for our Finnish fans.

DaleDVM wrote:I agree. This set is not just thrown together at the last minute to get rid of overruns of minifigs. That base as ugly as it is had to be prepared beforehand. This is a planned release and an amazingly well kept secret as well.

I wouldn't be surprised with little Kingdoms releases from time to time as placeholders for castle while LOTR runs its course...

In the past the rook built out of LEGO parts not the minifigures had some glue on them. That was some time ago with the Vikings chess set. More recent releases have not been glued. However, the minifigs not being glued may be due to Ben and his don't glue your minifigs rebellion! I didn't become a member until after you led that Rebellion Ben so thank you in retrospect!

Since the minifigs aren't glued, I might pick this up some time later when funds are better. The base piece I would probably paint and build around. I also just noticed that there are four of the large dragon shields in this set. It doesn't look like the Dragon king has the printed dark green wizard's hat. Bricklink doesn't have it listed yet, so I can't be certain of this.

Just got my sets from FedEx and nothing is glued. The main base is pretty useless (about what I expected), though I'm sure some enterprising builder will find a way to put it to use. The large green base plate is a plus. Real Lion Knights instead of Jesters and a true Dragon King and Queen would have made it a home run, but it's still solid overall and a good value at $50.

jaydawg wrote:Just got my sets from FedEx and nothing is glued. The main base is pretty useless (about what I expected), though I'm sure some enterprising builder will find a way to put it to use. The large green base plate is a plus. Real Lion Knights instead of Jesters and a true Dragon King and Queen would have made it a home run, but it's still solid overall and a good value at $50.

I'm sure we would be all very grateful if you were able to post pictures of the figures! How do they compare to 'normal' figures? Or are they more like battle-pack quality plastic?